I know it’s a little bit past the actual beginning of winter, but I think from now on I’m just going to break these seasonal reading lists up into more or less three month time periods and name them for the closest corresponding season. It’s just not practical to try and do a full year’s worth of books that I’m excited about, even in January, especially when there are plenty of still-to-be-announced releases for later in the year that I don’t even know about yet. So, this list will get you (and me) through March.
Magazines
I’m starting this year off with magazine subscriptions for the first time in many years. (Like, now that I think about it, I think the last time I regularly read any magazine was Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine back in the early ’90s. Yikes.) Here’s what I’m definitely reading (and recommending, natch) in the first few months of 2017:
Tor.com Novellas and Short(-ish) Novels
I plan to continue reading all of these as they are published (or as ARCs if I am lucky and they show up on NetGalley). I know I’ve been full of praise for the last couple of years for Tor.com’s novellas, but I still basically love them. The novella length (and price!) is great for quick reading, and Tor.com publishes a great variety of new and established authors in a good mix of subgenres that offers plenty that I like and enough stuff outside my usual comfort zone to keep things interesting and challenging. After 2016, there are a couple of authors that I will be avoiding in the future because I just don’t care for their books at all, but other than that I expect to keep on reading these faithfully. The first quarter of 2017 has quite a lot to be excited for.
- Dusk or Dawn or Dark or Day by Seanan McGuire – January 10
- Sin du Jour: The First Course by Matt Wallace – January 10 (Contains books 1-3 of the series. I probably won’t be rereading it, but if you haven’t read it at least once, you should.)
- The Fortress at the End of Time by Joe M. McDermott – January 17
- Passing Strange by Ellen Klages – January 24
- Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor – January 31
- Idle Ingredients by Matt Wallace – February 7
- An Impossible War by Andy Remic – February 14 (This is one I’ll be skipping, but it’s surely a better fit for someone.)
- Cold Counsel by Chris Sharp – February 21
- Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R. Kiernan – February 28
- Standard Hollywood Depravity by Adam Christopher – March 7
- Brother’s Ruin by Emma Newman – March 14
- Chalk by Paul Cornell – March 21
Everything Else
Everything else obviously is the majority of what I’ve got on my TBR list. There are a handful of things here that I’m not 100% sure about, but in order to hit my Goodreads challenge numbers I’ll have to get through most of these. I hope I can, because there’s a ton of great stuff coming out over the next couple of months.
- Difficult Women by Roxane Gay – January 3
- Windwitch by Susan Dennard – January 10
- The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden – January 10
- Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler, John Jennings (Illustrator), Damian Duffy (Adapted by) – January 10
- Dreadnought by April Daniels – January 24
- Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty – January 31
- Crossroads of Canopy by Thoraiya Dyer – January 31
- Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly – February 7
- The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley – February 7
- Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey – February 14
- Angel Catbird Volume 2: To Castle Catula by Margaret Atwood and Johnny Christmas – February 14
- Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer – February 21
- Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells – March 7
- The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin – March 14
SF Bluestocking 